First, we should cover what silicone actually is because there is a lot of confusion regarding the material. Technically, silicone could be considered within the rubber family, but the plastics industry includes silicon as a plastic. Silicone is best explained as a hybrid between a synthetic rubber and a synthetic plastic polymer. The things you can produce from silicone vary considerably, from moldable rubber-like products, hard resins and spreadable fluids. The properties that make silicone so popular in manufacturing include flexibility, malleability, clarity, temperature and water resistance. It can be shaped or formed and softened or hardened to create almost anything. The unique properties to silicone are that it is highly temperature resistant and durable and it has a low reactivity to chemicals.
It’s these materials that make silicone an ideal product for correctional meal trays.
Correctional meal trays made from silicone are flexible and waterproof – all natural properties of silicone. Because they are malleable, they can be shaped to have food compartments like a six compartment hard plastic tray, yet they are soft and flexible so they won’t break or crack even when beaten against a hard floor and they cannot be sharpened into a weapon. This is perhaps the number one benefit of a silicone tray for the correctional foodservice operation.
Silicone is non-stick and water and stain resistant. There are a wide variety of foods that can easily stain lighter colored hard plastic and those stains are nearly impossible to remove. Foods like mashed sweet potatoes, tomato sauce, blueberries and more leave marks on many different types of materials. Because silicone is naturally stain and odor resistant, there won’t be traces of foods from previous meals left on the trays.
Silicone has low reactivity to chemicals and is temperature resistant. Speaking of dishwashers, because silicone has a low reactivity to chemicals, they can be run through a dish machine many, many times with no degradation of the materials. Meal trays made from silicone won’t fade from the dishmachine or other elements. And because they are temperature resistant, silicone meal trays can be run through any high heat dish machines or a blower dryer without issue.
Silicone has many great properties that lend it to foodservice applications. Using silicone to make the Cook’s Brand Flex trays and Flex Bowls and Flex Tumblers has given us the ability to create an extremely safe product to use in high risk areas of correctional facilities.
